Government
KC smart city leader: Only one city ‘smart’ enough for Amazon HQ2
Kansas City’s smart city excellence stands out among a crowded field of major U.S. cities vying for Amazon’s second headquarters, Bob Bennett said. “San Diego has a crazy amount of smart street lights, but they aren’t connected to anything except themselves. New York City has a great Wi-Fi network,” said Bennett, chief innovation officer at…
5 startups enjoy growth, connections with KCMO innovation partnership
Although the government may be pegged as resistant to change, Kansas City Mayor Sly James wants to flip the script. “On a city level, we aren’t having much help from the state and federal governments sometimes,” James said at the Innovation Partnership Program demo day on Monday at WeWork Corrigan Station. “But, we still have…
With fund now slashed, LaunchKC alumni say MTC vital to early success
PopBookings probably wouldn’t be in business today without the early support — and more critically the investment dollars — of the Missouri Technology Corporation, Erika Klotz said. “It really allowed us to do more quicker,” the PopBookings co-founder and CEO said. “For any startup, speed is everything. It allowed us to get credibility right out…
Greitens eyes private investment dollars to fill MTC budget gap
A new, privately-managed innovation fund could replace a popular startup investment program that was dramatically slashed for 2018 amid Missouri’s budget crunch. The potential strategy change comes as a suggestion from the Hawthorn Foundation’s report to Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, following the months-long work of an innovation task force charged with assessing the current state…
KCMO to celebrate innovation partners at demo day
Since the publish date on Aug. 22, the location of the Innovation Partnership Program demo day has been changed. It will now be held at WeWork at Corrigan Station at 5:00 p.m. Five Kansas City startups are expected to be toasted next month with a demo day at a popular brewery. The Sept. 11 celebration…
